Tomorrow we will enter the hospital in a brand new role. As third year medical students. For once, we won’t be following attendings in packs, imposing on patients to let us poke and prod them one after another, with no responsibility except for our own learning. When I ask members of my class how they feel about tomorrow I’ve gotten a lot of similar answers. Excited. Scared. Nervous. And every once in awhile, Dread. Fear of the unknown. Insecurity. And Self-doubt.
We have spent the past two years sitting in the library, listening to lectures in class (or at home), studying. We were responsible for our grades but nothing else. No one else depended on us. Well, in our school lives at least. While we have no real power as MS3s, I have been reassured over and over again by attendings that we really are vital to how the hospital is run. We have more time with our patients than anyone else. We are the ones who can sit and talk to them, get to know them, maybe pick up on the random fact that they forgot to mention to anyone else but actually ends up being crucial to their treatment. We are the ones who have time to do research on our patients and their ailments. We’re more likely to pick up the zebras.
While many of my classmates feel these various feelings about tomorrow I hope that we soon overcome our fears. We are important and we really can have some good ideas every once in awhile. Recently while talking with Dr. Jones (an internal medicine faculty member at UTSW), he told a very interesting story. He had a student who was presenting a patient and stated that he believed the patient had Budd-Chiari syndrome and went on to explain his reasoning. No one else had thought of that. The resident hadn’t thought of it and Dr. Jones, even after decades of experience, hadn’t thought of that. Turns out, Budd-Chiari syndrome is exactly what the patient had. That third year medical student was not only smart enough to come up with the right answer but also confident enough to present it.
So to all the new MS3s, good luck tomorrow! Be confident, work hard, and always think about what’s best for your patients and you can’t go wrong.
